


As He Lay Dying

by theladyofthewest



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:08:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23798233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theladyofthewest/pseuds/theladyofthewest
Summary: A man, a husband, a demon lord, and a father muses on his life in his final moments.
Relationships: Inu no Taishou/Izayoi
Kudos: 17





	As He Lay Dying

On a cold winter’s night, when even the moon shied away from appearing, it happened. What many had considered impossible for centuries, what countless more had desired for even longer than that.

The Inu No Taisho met his end. For a human woman and a half-breed child.

In the most human way possible too, injured and alone, trapped beneath the remnants of a burning building. His only solace in those last moments that he had achieved what he had ventured forth to do.

He thought that it might make spontaneous gossip for the next little while. Throw the entire aristocracy into upheaval. His title, his wealth, everything he had spent centuries working towards, all left for the masses to tear apart in their effort to seat themselves at the top.

He could see the flames getting closer, feel their searing heat begin to wear down on him, but none of it mattered. He was dying, did it matter if it came from his wounds or the fire? All he could think of was his family - his children, one hurt and angry, the other vulnerable and new to this cold world. This world where no one would do anything but mock and reject him.

A man could tolerate many things, a demon countless more, but a father? The scope of what a father could endure, particularly when it came to his sons, was an extremely narrow one. Just the thought of what this world would do to the boy who hadn’t even opened his eyes yet, what his own family would do to him, was enough to send a surge of energy through him, enough to drag himself out from beneath the collapsed wood and into the icy relief of the frozen ground.

It was there, on the blanket of ice that soothed the stinging of his wounds, that he realized he wouldn’t make it, and this realization was more devastating than he had thought it would be. When trapped within the structure, it had been incredibly simple to accept his fate, unaware of the reality of what his death would mean for those he held closest to his heart. Now that he had recognized that these people, the very humans he had fought to protect, would just as easily see his child, his newborn son, dead - it was harder to come to terms with the fact that as a parent he could do nothing to stop this.

Would his son even think of him? Or would he always be the shadow of a man who had doomed his boy to a cursed half existence? Sesshomaru, he knew well enough to recognize that he had dealt a blow too deep to the boy’s heart to gain his forgiveness any time soon, but he could pray to anyone that may be listening that one day the child he had taught to walk, held in his arms and shown the world, would find it within himself to look fondly upon the memory of his sire.

He could feel his blood soaking into the snow beneath him, sense the blanket of fatigue that was creeping up on him, and knew the end was near.

Would Izayoi remember him? She was human, her memory weak, would he fade from her thoughts in the years that were to come? Nothing more than the man who had destroyed her entire life in his own selfish pursuit for happiness? Would she come to despise him? Would she take another?

That much he couldn’t fault her. Even now, waiting for his old heart to finally tire, he wanted nothing more than to think of her smile, see the happiness shining in her eyes. If another could bring that to her, he would contently match them himself.

As he lay dying, he mused to himself that perhaps there was nothing more terrifying than the prospect of being forgotten. Becoming nothing more than a name that was lost among the legions of souls lost every day.

The air wasn’t as cold as it was before, majority of the ice seemed to have taken up within his body. It was getting harder to keep his eyes open now, and his lungs ached with every breath he drew in.

The world would speak of the Inu No Taisho for years to come, speak of the demon who had conquered many far and wide.

But who would speak of Touga? Of the man who had done nothing but love one woman more than he had thought possible? The man who was so unfortunate that he couldn’t take his newborn son into his arms once before he died.

But the pup - Inuyasha - was his son. His own flesh and blood. He would do great things, and every time he rose up against evil, every time he used his ability to protect those who couldn’t stand for themselves - he would honour him.

He would come alive in his boys’ actions.

And as the light faded and his world went dark, that one thought was enough to bring a smile to his face.

So long as they lived, he would never truly die.


End file.
